Best Friends Animal Society trip: Day 1 - Friday, May 13 & Dog Town Part 1

At a brief orientation at the Welcome Center I got my schedule and nametag so I was ready to begin. There are two volunteer sessions each day: 8:15 to 11:30 and 1:15 to 4:00pm. I'm doing both sessions today and tomorrow. Today is to be spent at Dogtown. This part of the sanctuary is about 3 miles from the Welcome Center and devoted 100% to dogs! I arrived to get my safety video training regarding the handling of the dogs. My first task was to attend a puppy training class - terrible, huh?! Anyway, there were only four little ones and about ten of us "training". The puppies are being trained with positive reinforcement to sit and lay down, not jump or nip and so on. Of course, about half of the class is actually puppy play time for extra socialization.
After that, I headed to the Dogtown Heights octagons. This is where lots of people-friendly dogs stay so you just help out with whatever they ask of you. I was in an area called ]The Fairway which consists of two octagons. The octagons are structures that have about six indoor and outdoor sections for dogs to live. After chatting with severals dogs, my first task was to walk Donna, a Labrador Retriever. They have walking trails specifically for this purpose and it takes about 20 minutes to do one lap. Although wonderful with people, Donna is little aggressive with other dogs so I had to make sure that we stayed "alone" throughout our walk. Donna knows the path and apparently likes to search for lizards at every shrub!
When Donna and I finished our walk, I was assigned to walk Maddison , a yellow Lab, who is a little slower and older than Donna. Since Maddie is dog-friendly, we paired up with another volunteer, Troy, and his walking partner, Patagonia (Patty). Patagonia is a ridiculously adorable hound dog. An unusual pair, Maddie & Patty share a run in the octagon so they get along quite well. Not as big on lizards, Maddie loved to eat the berries of a tree that is seen quite often along the walking trail. Luckily, the berries are actually good for dogs but the walking part takes a little longer.
By the time the four of us got back to The Fairway, it was 11:30 and the AM session was over. Time to get some lunch and relax (out of the sun!) for an hour or so.